


here underneath the moonlit sky

by ciminos



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Compliant, Character Study, First Kiss, Fluff, Getting Together, Halloween, Halloween Costumes, Humor, Idiots in Love, If You Squint - Freeform, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-03
Updated: 2020-10-03
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:01:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26791072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ciminos/pseuds/ciminos
Summary: Reggie convinces Luke to dress up in a couples costume with him despite them not being together...yet.
Relationships: Luke Patterson/Reggie (Julie and The Phantoms)
Comments: 9
Kudos: 317





	here underneath the moonlit sky

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this entire thing in one day and it isn't beta-read but in honor of spooky month heres two cute boys! <3

“Nobody can even see us besides Julie, what’s the point?” Luke scoffs as he squeezes in between his two bandmates on their small dusty couch. He winds up halfway on the seat and halfway in Reggie’s lap but honestly, they were close enough for that to be nothing short of normal.

"Okay, we really need to get a bigger couch.” Alex quips as he scoots over as far as he can in order to create some space between the three of them.

“Don’t change the subject, Alex!” Reggie scolds, reaching behind the back of the couch in order to flick his bandmate on the back of the head, “and the point is it’s _fun_! We have nothing better to do since Julie has plans with Flynn tonight, may as well make the most of this free time.”

“That _is_ a fair point.” Alex shrugs.

“Don’t agree with him!” Luke narrows his eyes towards the boy. However, he can’t help but break into a small smile that forms on his face when he feels Reggie’s hand snake up the back of his neck and flick him lightly.

Honestly, he loved to tease Reggie because he was always someone who could take it and knew he didn’t mean it. As fun as it was to tease other people, something about Reggie was different. And maybe that reason was that he has a teeny tiny crush on him but he silences that thought.

The two of them had made numerous inside jokes and shared countless secrets with each other to the point where Luke could feel his affection for his bandmate slowly continue to grow until it was constantly weighing on his mind like an ever-present heartbeat, constant and filling.

Luke has always been someone who wasn’t afraid to speak his mind but for some reason when it came to Reggie it was like he was a different person. He made him feel like he was special and important and as cheesy as it was to say, he didn’t know what he would do without him. 

“Okay, so it’s agreed we're doing a group costume!”

“Hold on… I didn’t agr-“ Luke is cut off by Reggie as his palm slams across his mouth, clamping it shut.

“Yup it’s agreed. Okay, so I was thinking Alvin and the Chipmunks! I saw Carlos watching it on the TV the other night and it’s perfect. Luke you’re going to be Alvin obviously because you're the leader, Alex-“

“Oh yeah, sorry Reg but I already made plans with Willie.” He sends him a look of guilt but instantly replaces it with a smile when Reggie uses his other hand to tap him on the back, acknowledging that it was okay.

“Okay no group costume that’s fine, I guess we could just be Alvin and Theodore, although it might be a little weird.”

Luke sticks out his tongue in order to lick the back of his Reggie’s hand that was still pressed against his lips. Reggie’s eyes grow comically large in shock as he pulls his hand back quickly as if he had just been touching hot coals. 

“I don’t even know who those people are.” Luke laughs as the other boy furiously wipes his hand on the side of the couch, muttering several “ew’s” under his breath.

“Okay one…I clearly said they were chipmunks,” Reggie sighs as he picks up Luke’s hand and uses it to count on his fingers, “two…we are definitely watching it soon,” he lifts up another finger, “and three… you have any better ideas?”

“Not doing it at all?” 

Reggie drops his hand and uses both of his own to grasp onto Luke’s shoulders and shake him back and forth, “loosen up, man!” 

“Why don’t you guys do a couple's costume?” Alex teases as he stands up and ruffles Luke’s hair. Luke sends him an i-hate-you-so-much-but-not-really glare as he watches him turn around and walk away.

Luke had told Alex about his feelings for Reggie and truthfully it was probably the worst thing he’d ever done in his life. Ever since then he had been teasing him and pushing the two of them together every chance he got. Part of him believes that half the time Alex says he has plans he actually doesn’t and just tries to find an excuse to leave the two of them alone. 

“Oh my gosh wait-“

“Nope, not going to happen.” Luke cuts the other boy off before he can finish his thought, but he knew that he was already too late. Once Reggie had his mindset on something it was nearly impossible to convince him otherwise. 

“Yup, we’re doing a couple’s costume let’s go right now!”

“We’re not even a couple.”

“So? Friends do matching costumes all the time too now let's go!” Reggie extends his hand out once he jumps off the couch and waits for Luke to grab it. 

God Reggie was just so attractive. Luke’s eyes follow up his arm and land onto his face. His eyes shine from the light that peered in from the dirty windows. His hair lays perfectly across his head, a single strand dropping down in front of his eyes. And his expression is soft and care-free.

Hesitantly Luke grabs onto Reggie’s wrist—admitting defeat, although truthfully he knew from the beginning that he would end up giving in. Once he gets up he lets his hand linger on top of the other boy’s. He thinks he sees his cheeks turn a bright shade of pink but before he can get a closer look he poofs out of the room. Great.

**

For future reference: going last-minute costume shopping on Halloween is a terrible idea. They have been to three different stores already and everything has been either too big, too small, or too ugly. It especially didn’t help that Reggie was one of the pickiest people that Luke has ever met. 

“No Luke, we can’t wear those, they’re boring!” “No Luke, those costumes aren’t couple-y enough!” “No Luke, those aren’t funny!” 

Honestly, if it was anybody else, Luke would have already gone back home and given up but of course, when he was with Reggie he never wanted to leave. He could go to a hundred more stores and probably still not be tired of being there with him. Hanging out with any of his bandmates was fun, but with him, it was always something more. 

“Why do you have to be so picky, Reg!” Luke complains, trailing behind his bandmate and dragging his feet on the pavement.

“Oh don’t act like you aren’t having fun spending the day with me.” Reggie chuckles, slowing down in order to walk next to him.

He’s right, but Luke doesn’t admit it. He watches the other boy out of the corner of his eye as they walk down the crowded street. They walk straight through lifers and keep track of how many they can walk through before accidentally walking into a ghost. Needless to say, they’ve had some not-so-nice conversations with ghosts that they have ended up accidentally running into head-first.

They finally reach another costume shop just as they were about to call it quits. Almost as if the universe was forcing Luke to wear an embarrassing matching costume with his crush. Thanks a lot, universe.

Luke is about to pass through the door until he notices Reggie focus all his energy into his hands and pull open the door himself,

“After you.” He bows.

God, why did he have to be so cute? Luke laughs and pretends to curtsy before he walks thru the open door. Once he walks in he notices that nearly everyone in the store was staring directly at him, mouths agape and eyes widened. For a second he thinks that they can see him but he realizes it was because to them, it seemed as if the door had opened by itself. 

“Great job prince charming, you’ve freaked them all out.” Luke mutters as he begins to head further into the shop, slowly followed by Reggie.

“Just proving that chivalry isn’t dead.” The other boy chuckles.

They look around the store in shock due to just how many costumes there were. Each aisle had a large sign hung above it that listed ages from toddler to adult. Down each row hung hundreds of costumes neatly categorized by different genres. 

They weren’t sure why exactly this store had so many options when the others they had been to were pretty much bare-bones, but it must have just been luck. 

They make their way down the adult-sized aisle, stopping every few seconds to point out a costume they thought was painfully hilarious. They pass several costumes that they couldn’t imagine anyone would want to wear. They even pass a hotdog costume and Luke notices Reggie almost consider it until he pushes him past it, 

“Nope, not happening, too soon.” 

“Respect.” His bandmate chuckles.

However, he stops in his tracks once again a few seconds later, nearly causing Luke to bump into him. He follows his eye-line and lands on probably the worst two costumes he’s ever seen, including everything he had just passed past, "Oh absolutely not.”

“Absolutely yes!” Reggie shouts—grabbing the two costumes off of the shelf.

Ketchup and mustard bottles. They were going to be ketchup and mustard bottles. The man on the sample picture on the front of the costume looked like he absolutely hated his life which is exactly how Luke knew he’d feel if he was wearing the same thing.

“You realize that’s the exact thing that goes on hotdogs!” He glares as the other boy’s smile grows impossibly large.

He hugs the ketchup costume close to his chest with one hand and extends out his other to hand the mustard one to Luke, “Which is exactly why it’s hilarious.”

Luke sighs deeply, once again admitting defeat. God, why was he so whipped? He hesitantly grabs the costume and stares down blankly at it. He didn’t even like mustard. In fact, he despised mustard, but the lengths he’d go to just so Reggie could be happy…it was crazy.

“How exactly are we supposed to pay for these?” Luke questions, tilting his head to the side.

The other boy holds up his pointer finger signaling for him to wait, before putting down his costume and walking up and out of the aisle. This guy would be the death of him for sure, that is if he wasn’t already dead. 

Reggie returns a few seconds later grinning ear to ear. He pats Luke on the back as he passes him and picks up his costume. He then continues walking until he notices that his bandmate isn’t following him so he turns around and signals for him to follow him. 

Luke raises an eyebrow in confusion until he feels his own wrist being grasped and pulled along. They walk all the way down the aisle until they reach the back of the store. Reggie looks over to him and grins before he leads them through the wall and back out onto the street.

“What? So we’re stealing these?” Luke questions concernedly.

“Of course not! Do you even know me?” Reggie snorts. Yeah, Luke knew him. More than he’d like to admit. He knew more than he needed to know about anyone, but also not enough. “I dropped all my money into the tip jar when nobody was looking, definitely way more than I needed to but hey, I’m a nice person.” 

“Now, let's keep shopping…I bought the costumes though so now you have to buy me something.” 

Luke looks down at their hands and notices that the other boy’s hand is still wrapped around his wrist. He hides the blush that forms on his face as he nods his head and lets himself be dragged along down the street. 

**

They finally get back home after walking for over an hour. An hour. Just because Reggie “didn’t feel like poofing” and wanted to “sightsee”. Honestly, Luke didn’t know what he saw in him. If it was anyone else he would have left them there to walk alone but of course, he couldn’t pass up on the opportunity to spend more time with him.

They enter their studio and are instantly flooded with the sound of Alex’s drums, beating loud and smoothly. Because, of course, Alex was still here. Luke _knew_ that he was just trying to get the two of them alone together and now there was proof. 

Alex’s eyes find the two of them and instantly widen as he quickly drops his drumsticks, sending them clamoring onto the ground. He looked like a deer in headlights and Luke covers his mouth with his hand to stifle a laugh. 

“Alex? I thought you were with Willie.” Reggie asks innocently. 

Thank god he was absolutely oblivious when it came to his feelings because Alex’s intentions were clear as day. He sends Alex a death glare and laughs as he mirrors the expression,

“O-oh yeah I am! We just decided to meet up a little bit later, like-“ he pulls his wrist up to his face and squints, “oh right now! I gotta go, see you guys later!” 

“You’re not even wearing a watch!” Luke shouts just before Alex poofs away, leaving the two of them alone once again. 

“I’ll never understand him.” Reggie chuckles, placing their shopping bags onto the floor and crouching down to begin searching through them. He digs through them quickly like a raccoon scavenging through garbage bags for a piece of food. 

“I’ll never understand you.” Luke teases, kneeling down beside him. 

Reggie pulls out the two costumes and chucks the mustard one at Luke, hitting him directly in the face,

“Bro.” He scowls. 

“Oh sorry, I didn’t know you were there,” Reggie drops the things in his hand and brings it up to touch Luke’s forehead lightly, “does it hurt?” 

Luke feels his entire face heat under the touch so he quickly turns the other way, “No worries it’s fine, i’m fine.” He waves off. How did Reggie manage to get him this flustered all the time, it wasn’t fair. 

“Oh okay.” Is all he says before he refocuses his attention back to their bags. That boy is completely clueless. And truthfully, he was glad. He wasn’t sure if he was ever going to confess his feelings for him but if he did, he likes to imagine that Reggie would be completely blown away in shock despite how obvious he has been for months.

Reggie was in a lot of ways very smart, but sometimes Luke couldn’t believe how clueless he could be.

**

The sky finally begins to fade into a dark blue and the sound of children’s voices starts to grow loud outside. The two of them had been keeping to themselves for the past few hours. Luke, working on a new song and Reggie doing god knows what. 

Luke assumed he was probably either inside keeping a one-sided conversation with Julie’s dad or watching the TV with her brother as that’s usually what he liked to do to pass time. It was probably due to the fact that Reggie used to be super close with his own family before they died, so finding comfort in Julie’s was something they should have expected.

Luke is working on the final verse to his song when Reggie poofs behind him and grabs his shoulders, resulting in a higher-than-he’d-like-to-admit pitched yelp,

“Oh my god, when will you stop doing that?” He shouts.

“When it stops being hilarious.” Reggie giggles, patting the other boy on the back as he attempts to even out his breath. 

Luke rolls his eyes then watches as the boy makes his way over to where they had laid their costumes and begins pulling his own out of the plastic packaging. He rips off his shirt and Luke tries his best not to stare but he feels his eyes wander onto him out of habit. 

Since being forced to live in close quarters, they’ve had to see each other change so many times that they were used to it at this point, but every time Reggie changed he would always find himself being compelled to watch. 

And when he changed himself he often felt like there was a lingering gaze on him, but whenever he looked up, his two bandmates seemed to both be minding their own business. Maybe his mind liked to imagine that Reggie would also occasionally watch him but he tells himself it’s not possible. 

Reggie pulls his costume up and over his shoulders and then places the large hat on top of his head. Honestly, he looked ridiculous. Like utterly ridiculous. Luke wished that they were able to show up on camera just so that he could permanently commemorate how embarrassingly adorable he looked. 

The costume is large and obnoxious and looks almost impossible to move around in. Luke bursts out into laughter as he watches Reggie try to reach around to the back of his costume in order to zip it up. Reggie notices and pouts before walking over and turning around, silently asking him to zip it up for him. 

“I can’t believe we’re doing this for absolutely no reason.” Luke sighs, zipping up the back.

“Wrong, there is a reason, it’s fun!” Reggie turns around, “Oh and while I was outside I noticed that one of the neighbors set up a haunted house sooo guess where we’re going!”

“Hmm I want to say… a haunted house.”

“Yup! Now put on your costume already.” Reggie waves him off.

Luke slowly walks over to the other side of the room and picks up his costume. He stares down at it and sighs before he begins to take it out of the package. The things that Reggie made him do, honestly. 

He takes off his shirt and feels the same pair of eyes he always felt on him but when he looks towards the only other person in the room he finds him staring down towards the ground. He thinks that the boy's face had turned a few shades pinker than before, but he tells himself he’s imagining things. 

He slips on the costume and peers into the mirror. When his eyes fall onto himself he audibly gasps due to how completely ridiculous he looked. As he suspected it was incredibly uncomfortable and obnoxious. Not to mention yellow, which was his least favorite color. 

He watches Reggie in the mirror as he walks up behind him and places one hand onto his shoulder in order to steady him as he zips him up. Luke doesn’t think about his hands ever-present on him. And he absolutely doesn’t imagine him unzipping it and pulling it off of him in a heat of passion.

“Alright you’re good to go, now let's go check out this ‘haunted’ house.” Reggie uses his fingers to air quote the word ‘haunted’ before turning around and heading out.

Luke simply chuckles to himself before he gets one last look in the mirror and follows him out the door.

**

The house was honestly pretty subpar. There were a few fake cobwebs placed throughout the home as well as a fog machine that seemed to only serve the purpose of making the air harder to breathe. The homeowners and their kids were scattered around the rooms hiding behind miscellaneous furniture waiting to jump out and scare people.

So, Luke and Reggie decided that they would work together to make the home scarier for them. Luke hung out beside the light switch and would occasionally switch it on and off, resulting in a burst of screams meanwhile Reggie would lightly pull the hair of guests as they walked thru him.

They would also make comments on each costume, most of the time being negative. Several ghost costumes resulted in a fit of laughter and criticism of just how inaccurate they were. 

Eventually, they grow bored and decide to walk around the neighborhood, hoping to stumble upon more lifers to play more harmful pranks on.

“See, think about how boring this would be if we were walking around in our regular clothes.” Reggie nudges him in the arm as they walk down the sidewalk.

“I’m never going to admit that.” Luke chuckles. 

As much as he didn’t want to, it was true that the costumes put him more in the Halloween spirit. The truth is, earlier today he was dreading Halloween because before he had run away from home, he and his family would always celebrate Halloween together. It was probably their favorite holiday and they would spend the whole day pranking each other and scaring other people. The realization finally hits him like a train and he instantly freezes in place. 

“Hey, Reg?”

“Yeah? Everything okay?” He asks concernedly.

“Did you do all this because…” He shifts on his feet, “because you knew that today would be hard on me?” 

Reggie’s face softens and he places a hand onto his shoulder, “Well, yeah of course.”

Once the words register in Luke’s brain he feels his chest swell. As if he needed another reason to fall for Reggie, there it was. He really spent the whole day distracting him just so that he wouldn’t think about his parents. 

If Luke ever doubted that he had feelings for Reggie, right there in that moment he knew couldn’t deny it anymore. He was in love with his best friend. And as scary as it was to admit and cheesy it was to say, he felt like he was the one for him.

“Reg…” Luke looks into the other boy’s eyes as they sparkle, reflecting from the moonlight. They stay there for a few seconds, both equally hesitant on what to do next until they find themselves slowly leaning in. But, due to their large obnoxious costumes, they aren’t able to reach each other and instead bounce apart when their costumes collide. 

The two steady themselves and then look back up at each other in amusement. Really. That was definitely one of the most embarrassing moments in his life. Luke isn’t sure what to say and almost chooses to stay silent until he spots Alex a few houses down messing with a few lifers, 

“Oh my god, there’s Alex.” He shouts amusedly. 

“What? I thought he was with Willie! So we could have been Alvin and the chipmunks after all!”

Luke rolls his eyes before he grabs Reggie by the arm and pulls him behind the nearest tree. 

“Okay, how should we scare him?”

“Oh, I know! we walk around the block and then tip-toe quietly until we’re behind him and then-“ Reggie is cut off as a familiar voice shouts out at the two of them from across the street. 

“You guys know I can see you right,” Alex says bluntly with a hint of amusement, “those costumes are giant.”

Reggie pouts but Luke chuckles and pats him on the back, “We’ll get him next time.”

**

They slam open the doors to their studio with their feet and dumb their bags full of candy out onto the floor. The three of them sit in a circle sorting through their favorites and trading with each other. Luke trades all his snickers for Alex’s peanut butter cups and Reggie trades in all his chocolate for the other two boys’ hard sour candy. 

Even though they couldn’t eat it yet they decide to store it in one of their bags and then bring it with them to the ghost club next time they went so that they could eat it there. 

“Well it’s getting pretty late, we should probably get some sleep since we have that gig tomorrow.” Alex says as he checks his wrist and pretends to yawn.

“You still don’t have a watch.” Luke scoffs, lightly pushing the other boy over.

“Well I _am_ tired so an excuse is an excuse.” Reggie exhales and slowly stands up, stretching out his limbs. 

“Fine, fine.” Luke agrees as he reaches out his hand, silently asking for Reggie to pull him up. Alex shoves all of the candy into their stage bag and then hops onto the couch. 

Since they started living in their studio they had taken turns alternating between one person on the couch and two people on an air mattress in the loft, and it just so happened that Luke and Reggie were sharing the mattress tonight because…of course. Thanks again, universe.

**

Luke finishes getting ready for bed in the bathroom and then climbs up the ladder leading to the loft. 

His eyes land onto Reggie who is curled up in a ball on the left side of the bed and is flipping thru a book. 

“Hey.” Luke whispers as he climbs under the covers and pulls them up to his shoulders.

“Hi.” Reggie responds, looking up from his book with a soft smile, and _wow_ he was absolutely breathtaking. Even though he was just laying there in his usual black tee and messy hair, he was perfect. He could look at that face forever and never grow sick of it.

“So, about earlier,” Luke says as he turns onto his side so that the two were facing each other, “I just wanted to say thanks…y’know for distracting me…i-it means a lot.”

Reggie puts down his book and reaches his hand out from under the covers hesitantly before placing it onto the nape of Luke’s neck, “of course, what are friends for.”

Luke grimaces at the word and feels disgust grow within him. _Friends_. Normally he would have brushed it off but at this point, he was tired of hiding his feelings and they definitely didn’t seem to be going away anytime soon. 

Luke reaches up and places his own hand on top of Reggie’s, “Reg…“

Reggie looks at their hands and then back to Luke, “I know,” Luke inhales sharply and closes his eyes, scared to hear the next words, “I like you too.”

His eyes open quickly and instantly lock onto the other boys. He feels his own face soften and the stress in his shoulders begins to fade.

Luke leans in until he’s only a few breaths away, “Is this…okay?”

Reggie doesn’t answer but instead closes the distance between the two of them. Their lips meet and Luke feels his entire body flood with desire. It’s slow and delicate but also filled with compassion and lust. 

They eventually pull apart and Luke brings his fingers up to his own lips as they start to tingle, instantly missing the feeling. 

They fall asleep soon after, feet tangled together under the blankets, faces inches apart, and smiles painted across their faces. Alex was definitely going to love this.

**Author's Note:**

> my twitter is @juiynns if u wanna talk about these cuties with me <3 tysm for reading xx


End file.
